TYPE: Astral Goddess, Goddess of the Moon
ORIGIN: Aztec (Classical Mesoamerican) [Mexico]
PLANET: Moon
PARENTS: Mixcoatl and Coatlicue (Codex Florentine)
SIBLINGS: Huitzilopochtli and the Centzon Huitznahuac (Codex Florentine); The Centzon Mimixcoa (Codex Ramirez)
GREEK EQUIVALENT: Artemis, Selene
MAYAN EQUIVALENT: Ixchel (God O)
INFORMATION: A deification and incarnation (avatara) of the moon. According to tradition she is the half-sister of the sun god Huitzilopochtli. The god sprang, fully armed from his decapitated mother, Coatlicue, and engaged all his enemies who, by inference are the 400 astral gods, his half-brothers. He slew his sister and hurled her from the top of a mountain. Alternative tradition suggests his sister was an ally whom he was unable to save, so he decapitated her and threw her head into the sky, where she became the moon. She was represented in the Great Temple at Tenochtitlan, where she was depicted in front of successive Huitzilopochtli pyramids. She is also a hearth deity within the group classed as th e Xiuhtecuhtli complex.